The Takumars are outstanding in their own right. But keep in mind that they pre-date the advent of APO lenses, internal focusing, and other techniques now commonly used to provide apochromatic correction on lenses above 200mm and close focus.
Pentax never made a fast (f/2.8-class) screwmount 200mm lens. Soligor made a 200/2.8, but it's probably not as good as the Tak 200/4 (58mm filter). The best screwmount 200 may be the Vivitar Series One 200/3, which focuses to 4 feet (1.2 m), and magnifies 1:4. Unfortunately, it was only single-coated in the screwmount version. In 300mm, The Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar Auto Electric 300/4 (86mm filter) is probably the Takumar's only true rival. Its owners rave about its sharpness and color rendition. Hard to find in the States; look at German Ebay. In January 2002 you could buy one $375 (US) reconditioned with a 3-year warranty from Hans Roskam in the Netherlands at http://rulsfb.Leidenuniv.nl/~roskam/index.html . For prime lenses longer than 300, the Takumar 400/5.6 is "OK" but cannot focus closer than 8 m. For what it lets you do--add a K-mount 1.4X TC and get a K-mount 700/6.3--the Takumar 500/4.5 is a steal at $400 to $500. But it cannot focus closer than 10m, and you must be prepared to support it with a heavy-duty tripod and ballhead. I think there were three versions. The first had a simpler lens formula and is best avoided. The second was single coated. The third (SMC or Super Takumar) is multicoated. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
